linux to an imac

2003-03-06 10:28 / titchy little exim recipe  »

The problem with having an entire domain of mail sent to the same inbox is that some random toad can 'steal' a localpart and use it for registration on feckless websites. So you start getting spam after spam for an address you've never even used.

Exim is a delight here, with its limit on configuration seemingly being just your imagination and ability to think up 'recipes'. The router below looks for files called <your_domain>.reject, and bounces mail with a 550 'invalid recipient' to any localpart listed there. It could probably be better, but it works, and reduces our bandwidth consumption.

EXIM_ETC = /usr/local/etc/exim

bounce_addresses:
        driver = redirect
        domains = dsearch;EXIM_ETC/domains/
        local_parts = lsearch*;EXIM_ETC/domains/$domain.reject
        allow_fail
        data = :fail: Invalid recipient

MBM has some crazy-arsed exim filters, including how to process baited, time-limited, and one-use addresses.

It's easy enough to install and run on OS X too, as a replacement for the default sendmail that Apple install. You'll probably want to set up a StartupItems script, but without mailer.conf, there's dangerous installer-overwritten symlinks to muck about with too. (i.e. ln -s /usr/local/exim/bin/exim /usr/sbin/sendmail.)